Posts Tagged ‘prisoner release’

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni announced on Thursday that the planned upcoming fourth release of terrorists has been cancelled, ostensibly because the Palestinian Authority broke the terms of the peace talk and unilaterally tried to join 15 UN connected international conventions.

In further response, Israel has cancelled all high level communications between Israeli ministers and the PA, and all communications will now be handled an IDF representative.

In addition, Israel has frozen various ongoing cellular communications projects with the PA.

Livni said that if the PA backs down from their unilateral moves, Israel would sit back down with them for further peace talks.

But the PA isn’t interested in talking more, and instead has come up with a list of new, and rather ridiculous preconditions for continuing talks, including: releasing 1200 terrorists, releasing terror chief Marwan Barghouti, a building freeze in eastern Jerusalem, Israel recognizing East Jerusalem as the PA capital, Israel acknowledging the 1967 armistice line with Jordan as the border with the PA, granting Israeli citizenship to 15000 Palestinian Authority citizens, barring the IDF from Area A, giving the PA more authority in Area C, and stopping the weapons blockade on Gaza, and a few more – and that’s just as a precondition to talk.

Later in the evening, the Gazans launched 3 rockets towards Sderot. They landed in open fields, and no damage or injuries were reported.

Bayit Yehudi Minister Naftali Bennett had his own response to the PA’s threat to join more UN groups, and that is that Abbas is financing terror, and Bennett plans to put Abbas and the PA in the international legal and diplomatic cross-hairs.

The Palestinian Authority is accusing Israel of “blackmail” and instead says it is heading back to the United Nations to appeal for recognition as a sovereign nation if U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry can’t force Israel to release 30 terrorists.

The group comprises the final of four tranches to have been released last Friday from Israeli jails. Included were at least 20 Israeli Arab citizens, a controversial list opposed by nearly all of the ministers in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, especially in view of the fact that all of the major concessions since the talks began — as before — seem to have been made by Israel only.

Incensed PA officials rejected the alternate proposal advanced instead of the release last Friday by Israel’s government. Israel allegedly offered to released hundreds more terrorist prisoners if the PA continue final status negotiations beyond the April 29 deadline – but this time take the talks more seriously.

The response of Israel’s “peace partners” was not encouraging.

“Israel is practicing a policy of blackmail and linking its agreement to releasing the fourth tranche of prisoners with the Palestinians accepting an extension of the negotiations,” a PA official told news agencies in Ramallah.

The move would be a clear violation of all agreements the PA has made with Israel and the United States.

Since July 2013, Israel has freed 78 PA Arab terrorists and made numerous other concessions that endanger the security of its citizens in “good will gestures” to encourage the PA to remain at the negotiating table.

But the four-stage release of terrorists incarcerated in Israeli jails was conditioned upon the active participation in direct talks by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas — and the Arab leader has not made good on his end of the deal.

It’s an old pattern, this “let’s talk some more about it but I can’t sit down with you until you give me what I want” — a game as beloved, familiar and ingrained in the Middle East as that being played out with Washington by the Iranians in Tehran.

Youngsters and tourists quickly learn the drill in the storefront alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City market. And it’s profitable and even fun, until it turns deadly.

Survival makes it essential to learn to tell when the game is deadly, and when you can’t, it is equally important to have enough sense to trust your friends to tell you when it is.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has informed Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that he is considering another trip to the region to try and patch up the talks.

This past Friday Israel proposed a new deal to extend the talks with the Palestinian Authority past the April 29 deadline in lieu of freeing a final group of 30 PA terrorist prisoners.

There are rumors the proposal includes the release of hundreds of more PA prisoners incarcerated in Israeli jails, but no reports have been confirmed.

PA officials did not reveal the details of the proposal to international news agencies Sunday but said PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is reviewing a draft of the plan.

The final 30 Arab prisoners were to be released from Israeli jails last week as part of a four-step process launched at the outset of the talks on condition the PA actively participated in the negotiations in good faith.

But Israel has seen little reciprocal movement from PA leaders. As a result, the government last week blocked the final tranche, especially since the tranche included 20 Israeli Arab citizens contested by a block of ministers from the start.

PA officials this weekend told the A-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper they expect the United States to pressure Israel into releasing the terrorists. “The leadership does not want to enter immediate conflict and appear responsible for the breakdown of the negotiation process,” the source said.

Netanyahu has warned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that his coalition may disintegrate if the prisoners are freed.

Israel will not release the final round of terrorists on Saturday, Palestinian Authority official Jibril Rahoub is claiming, according to an AFP report.

Israel has not reacted to his statement, whether it is true or not, or if Israel is simply delaying the release.

The Israeli government is facing a lot of internal pressure to not release this fourth round of terrorists, which includes Israeli Arabs and some very horrible mass murderers.

The Palestinian Authority says that without the release of these terrorists, they will refuse to extend the U.S. brokered peace talks with Israel.

Israel pledged to the U.S. to release a total of 104 terrorists who murdered women, children, innocent civilians, IDF soldiers, US and Canadian citizens, and even fellow Arabs, in exchange for the Palestinian Authority sitting down to talk. Israel has release 78 terrorists so far.

Unfortunately, Jibril Rajoub’s choice of words may indicate the release is only postponed, and not cancelled.

Government ministers are deeply divided over whether to free a final fourth tranche of 26 Arab terrorists, a group which includes about 20 Israeli Arab citizens.

The move, scheduled for tomorrow as the last of a total of more than 100 Palestinian Authority terrorists, has created a serious coalition crisis for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said in an interview on Voice of Israel government radio this morning that a majority of ministers are overwhelmingly opposed to the release of Israeli Arab prisoners.

Bennett also maintained that the entire issue of the release “must be renegotiated.”

Intended originally as a “good will gesture” to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, each tranche was to be conditional upon his active participation in direct final status talks with Israel.

But that has not happened, and as the deadline for conclusion of the talks approaches, Abbas is again waffling about his commitment to negotiations, saying he instead intends to return to his starting position of no compromises at all.

The “peace talks” between Israel and the Palestinians are foundering—as usual. When this last round started, Israel was extorted to release approximately 100 certified Palestinian murderers for the privilege of having the Palestinians meet with Tzipi Livni. The clock is running out on the talks with nothing concrete—other than John Kerry’s frequent flier miles—to show for it.

In order to continue the “peace process” charade, the Palestinians have again been coaxed to make a ridiculous demand, which has now been thrown at Israel. The Palestinian Authority wants the release of two major terror leaders: Marwan Barghouti and Ahmed Sadaat. The request was made directly to President Obama. As of the time of this writing, we don’t know the President’s views on the subject or whether he has passed along the request to Israel.

Marwan Barghouti was one of the people responsible for the horrific suicide bombing that twelve years ago changed my life, and that of my then seven-year old son, forever. In an effort to ensure that Barghouti remains in jail, I wrote and sent the following letter:

Hon. Barack H. Obama President of the United States of America White House Washington, D.C.

20 March ’14 Sent by FAX

Mr. President:

I am writing for your immediate consideration. It has been reported in the press and confirmed to me by a Knesset member that President Abbas requested your assistance in securing the release of Marwan Barghouti as a condition for continued peace talks with Israel. I sincerely request that you please not assist in any way in the release of this unrepentant mass-murderer. Tomorrow will mark 12 years since our oldest son, then seven years old, and I were wounded in a suicide bombing in downtown Jerusalem. Yehonathon had the head of a screw pass fully through his right brain, while I had two screws pass through my left arm. The picture below was taken within minutes of the attack:

Alan Joseph Bauer stands over his son Yehonathon, minutes after they were injured in suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem on March 21, 2002.

The role of Marwan Barghouti in this attack was revealed in indictments against the heads of the Fatah terror cell behind the attack. The dispatcher was an intelligence officer in the Palestinian Authority; he has moved up three ranks during his incarceration in Israeli prison. His indictment reads in part as follows:

17. On 20 March 2002, Nasser Shawish met in Ramallah with the head of the “Tanzim” of Fatah in the region, Marwan Barghouti. Nasser Shawish passed along to Marwan Barghouti that the accused was ready to send a suicide bomber for the purpose of performing a suicide attack inside the State of Israel. Marwan Barghouti asked to know if the accused and Nasser Shawish needed anything for the purpose of carrying out the planned attack. Though he was answered in the negative, Marwan Barghouti gave Shawish the amount of 600 dollars American.

The media have attempted to portray Marwan Barghouti as some kind of Nelson Mandela. The truth though is quite the opposite. Barghouti has never renounced violence as a legitimate means for advancing political goals, and he has never shown any remorse for his prolific terror activities that led to a forty-count indictment against him. Instead, he has encouraged additional “resistance” (i.e., terror) from his jail cell. Barghouti’s release may convince the Palestinians to sit around the table for an extra couple of months, but it will not bring peace. Barghouti’s presence outside of jail will be a driver for new Fatah terror activity, as Barghouti’s only card is terror, a point reinforced by confessions of his lieutenants from the Second Intifada.

Mr. President, we are not the only American citizens to be harmed by the actions of Marwan Barghouti. His continued incarceration is a small consolation for American terror victims like ourselves. We cannot re-wind the clock and make the injuries and suffering disappear; the one thing we can do is to pursue justice and to do everything in our power to prevent terrorists from striking again. As such, I ask you Mr. President to please make clear to President Abbas that the US will not support or encourage the release of such a dangerous terrorist as Marwan Barghouti.

Mr. President, as a child growing up just outside of Chicago, I used to watch the CTA trains go into the Linden Street station. On the side was painted: The Spirit of Chicago—I Will. I have worked in vain for the past eight years to convince officials at DoJ and the FBI to prosecute Barghouti and other terrorists who killed and maimed over ten dozen American citizens during the Second Intifada. Your assistance in keeping Barghouti in jail would be an enormous boost to these efforts on behalf of my family and my fellow American citizens.